Purchased from: Amazon
Rating: 10 out of 10 (Can I give this an 11 out of 10?)
Synopsis: Miller, the accidental memoirist who struck gold with the likable ramble Blue Like Jazz, writes about the challenges inherent in getting unstuck creatively and spiritually. After Jazz sold more than a million copies but his other books didn't follow suit, he had a classic case of writer's block. Two movie producers contacted him about creating a film out of his life, but Miller's initial enthusiasm was dampened when they concluded that his real life needed doctoring lest it be too directionless for the screen. Real stories, he learned, require characters who suffer and overcome. In desultory fashion, Miller sets out to change his own life—to be the kind of guy who seeks out his father, chases the girl and undertakes a quest. Along the way, he comes to understand God as a master storyteller who doesn't quite control where his characters are going. An unexpected bonus of this book is Miller's insights into the writing process. Readers who loved Blue Like Jazz will find here a somewhat more mature Miller, still funny as hell but more concerned about making a difference in the world than in merely commenting on it.
My Review: Well holy crap. Just after I thought my book life couldn't get any better after reading Susan Isaac's memoir Angry Conversations with God, I got my copy of A Million Miles in a Thousand Years in the mail. I could not tear through this book fast enough. Miller really knows how to put words together in incredible ways. AND, in addition to being an organic, funny, inspiring memoir, it was also a story about story, and if you know me -- I love stories. If you're someone who loves plot and character and conflict (all the things memoirists sometimes struggle with), you have got to get this book. Miller realizes his own story is lacking all the things that make great stories that we love to read and watch in the movies, so he sets off to make his story a STORY, letting the Master Storyteller scrawl across the pages of this life. It was so inspiring, I literally cried through the last hundred pages or so, especially during the stories about his friend Bob and his family. It made me want to evaluate my own life in relation to the elements of a story, and adjust things so that my life isn't just boring words on a page. It's my favorite book of the year so far. Seriously, you have to go out and read this book. Now. Do it. I'll be here when you get back because I want to know what you thought.
Borrowed from: the Sacramento Library (although, if someone wanted to get it for me for Christmas, I would love them forever and ever)
Rating: 10 out of 10
Synopsis: God in couples counseling? Sounds sacrilegious, but in the adept hands of comedian, writer and actress Isaacs, it's a success. Isaacs reached bottom at age 40: no job, no boyfriend, no home. Of course, she blamed God. So off they went to counseling with the ever-patient therapist Rudy. Isaacs moves easily between recounting her life story and her counseling sessions. She describes encounters with the Nice Jesus of her Lutheran upbringing; the Oakie Pentecostal church and the militant counselor; the Rock-n-Roll church and the Orthopraxy, Dude church, plus her rocky acting career and her love life, including guilt-ridden sex and Mostly Mister Right. Isaacs readily admits to being snarky, but she's honest about her quest and its conclusion. She's funny, biting, earthy and brilliant.
Review: I've been putting off writing this review because of just how much I loved this book and I don't feel like my review can do it justice. Susan Isaacs is a) raw, b) brilliant, and c) hilarious. The literary device she created —of taking God to couples counseling—worked perfectly and did a great job of giving the whole book a cohesive feel that is sometimes absent from memoir. The evolution of God's voice throughout the book is especially well done. Reading about the difficulties Isaacs went through in her walk with God felt so much more real than a lot of other Christian books I've read in the past. It's like she's, this is going to sound crazy, an actual person. She is refreshingly honest and I just fell in love with her story and the way she dealt with what came her way. And did I mention she's funny? Bitingly funny. I couldn't recommend this book more highly to all of my Christian girlfriends and to anyone who's disillusioned with the church. We ended up reading it for my book club and every single person absolutely loved it.
I'm working on preparing the house for Christmas decorations. I took today off of work - because in the morning I actually did feel a little crummy, but quickly felt better. Partly due to the coffee, and partly because I made my family a great breakfast, at least by weekday standards. Pillsbury Grands cinnamon rolls, strawberry-banana smoothies, and - for the first time ever - Ziploc omelets. Those were kind of fun - I got the recipe from someone at work a long time ago and had never made them until today. They'd be fun for the morning after a sleepover.
I get a daily newsletter from Better Homes & Gardens. The other day they had some really great ideas for Christmas decorations using cranberries, and also some cool ideas for a mantle. Of course I'm always looking for new ideas - the thought of doing my Christmas decorations the same year after year bores me to death - so I was happy to see some concepts that I thought I could actually do (I'm not especially crafty). Today when I was at the store, I bought the stuff to make my own version of a candy-cane-themed mantle.
It may not be designer-quality, but I thought it turned out pretty cool, for my feeble attempts at doing anything. And it was cheap, too. The candle in the middle smells like Cocoa Mint. Yummy. I can't quite decide if it's done or if it needs something more - height, a string of white lights, etc. I kind of like it the way it is.
Another thing I did was to go through the Christmas cards I still had from last year. I took another look at pictures and noted how much older the kids that I see on a regular basis look now, one year later. I re-read all of the Christmas letters. More than once I thought how interesting it was to read them with a knowledge of what had happened in 2009. More than one lost or changed a job. One of Brian's uncles passed away - in January, probably two months after the picture had been taken. It felt strangely ironic to think of all the pain of loss that family has endured this year - and they had no idea at the time that it was so imminent. It felt strangely ironic, and yet once again reminded me of the frailty of life on this earth. You just never know what's going to happen tomorrow. I don't want to sound depressing, but it's true.
So, for the last week or so, Penny's been dealing with the after effects of picking up an infection after having worms (ick). But after a couple of days of antibiotics, she seemed to be doing pretty well. And today was the first day back on the mountain after having had her put on a steady diet of bland food, antibiotics (which she will eat disguised in Gruyere cheese --- that's right --- not cheese slices, not cheese sticks, not peanut butter, Gruyere) and boring old leash walks.
She had a great time and ran and ran and ran. As we were heading home, she still had plenty of energy and ran way ahead and I called her back. She came running with something being lightly chewed in her mouth. I think -- oh great, worm-filled coyote poop. She comes up and I tell her, "Drop It!" and (somewhat surprisingly) she does. Expecting to see some half-masticated turd, I look down and there is what is pretty clearly something's liver. About 3" by 2" with what I was pretty sure was the gall bladder port still attached. Mmmmm....yummy!
I think maybe it was a rabbit's -- though it seemed a little big (though honestly I don't know how big a rabbit's liver is...) -- maybe it was from a raccoon?
Anyway, Penny got some treats for dropping on command -- which I doubt were as appetizing as that liver, and she seemed quite pleased with herself all morning.
Happy Friday!
One of my favorite piano pieces is the Schubert-Liszt lied “Der Leiermann” from the song-cycle “Winterreise” (translated as Winter Journey), which describes a man’s journey as he leaves his home and travels through a winter landscape. “Der Leiermann” is actually the conclusion of the song-cycle. It’s haunting and beautiful and I love playing it, though – alas – I do not sing along.
Anyway, in contrast to the past couple of Christmases, our little pack is preparing for its own Winterreise – this year, The Beloved, Penny and I are going to go to visit the Beloved’s folks for Christmas. That’s all good, right? Lots of people travel for the Holidays.
Ours though is going to be something we’ve never quite tried before. We’re going by car. To Virginia. From California. Google maps says it’s about 2700 miles and should take about 42 hours to get there.
We haven’t really planned it out yet, but we’re conceptualizing the trip as 5-5-5 (5 days out, 5 days there, 5 days back). We’ll obviously take a more southerly route and keep a close eye on the Weather Channel before we make some road choices. Penny has done well in the car (and seems to settle when we hit the freeways) but has never had to do car duty like this.
Fortunately, we have a Garmin and wi-fi enabled devices and lots of websites that cater to finding pet-friendly lodgings. Hopefully, we won’t need to stay in any mangers.
And so, I put it to you:
We leave in two weeks!
We turned what might have been a lazy Sunday into a very industrious one, getting The Aerie all decked out for Christmastime. We had the Christmas music playing from the office while we decked the halls and trimmed the trees (our big Christmas tree and our little Monterey pine out back). Speaking of trees, we even added some Christmas cheer to the palm trees outside of our home.
This week's warm weather and clear-sky Santa Ana was ushered out today in a big way with rain showers (and even hail!) and a cold wind from the north.
The change in weather was a good demarcation point to change from Thanksgiving into Christmas, which we're getting an early start on this year. Of course, the first course of action is to get the tree.
Now Penny has never had a tree in the house, and I'm not sure she entirely knows what to think about it. Wait until we put the lights and decorations on tomorrow!
After a couple of days of feeling out of sorts, it seems that Penny’s puppy pharmaceutical treatment has helped out immensely and that there was a very energetic and eager pointer ready for a big mountain hike this morning.
We took a great long hike down and then up to the top of the mountain The Aerie rests on. There were great views out to the ocean and even down to Point Loma.
Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!
So, my sister is coming from Maryland to visit for Thanksgiving. We did a lot of prep work this weekend to prepare, but I'm always looking for omens as to how the week might go.
Well -- both Penny and my car are sick. Penny had to take a de-wormer (ick) and my car needs new brake-pads (ka-ching).
At least Penny gets to sleep and I get to drive around in a 1-series loaner. Now how'd they know I was eyeing up one of those....
Hope everyone has a great week!
So, anyone that spends time here probably knows that we like a good cocktail from time to time here at The Aerie. But as hard as it is to believe, a good stiff drink isn’t always the right accompaniment for every occasion. Sometimes you just have to have a good glass of wine.
Wine (as opposed to booze) is something that I’ve come to a little later in life. When I was younger, I was intimidated by the somewhat snooty air that went along with the growing “wine culture” in America. I mean, could I really taste “ripe berries” and “burnt oak” and “hints of melon” in the chianti being served at my local Italian joint? Hardly.
And then I moved to California.
Wine is of course a huge industry here and for good reason – there are a lot of really good California wines. And so, when I moved here, I started trying some and learned how to say “Pinot Noir” correctly so that I felt better about myself. And two things happened, a) I began to know what I liked and b) I began not to care what other people (read: wine snobs) thought.
So, about the time we moved into The Aerie, the Beloved and I started taking more of an interest in wine – traveling to Sonoma County several times over the last couple of years. There, we were able start finding some places that we liked and buying their wines, and over time, we built up a good little stash.
Which bring me to today’s timewaster: CellarTracker. This is a free (though they ask for a donation) website where you can input the wines you have (and even the wines you want to have…) so that you know exactly what you’ve got, how it’s rated (both by the CellarTracker community and in major publications) and in cases of wines that need to be “laid-down”, when you should drink it.
I have to say that the website is very easy to use, has a great searching algorithm (so that you don’t have to enter in everything precisely, it will find the wine for you from its database…) and if you’re a data-nerd like me, you can sort and sub-sort your wines in all sorts of interesting ways.
As it turns out, we have ~75 bottles of wine and I was able to get them all entered in maybe an hour and half. Pretty cool.
There are also fields for you to enter private and/or public tasting notes (which I think would be useful for wines you have in restaurants and would like to jot something down before the next time you go to the store…) – though I give everyone free rein to come smack me if I write one with language like “overtones of ripe plums with hints of chocolate and coffee…”
Bottoms up!
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